Dreamers and the Dead
by RosiePeverell
Summary: Ginny, Neville and Luna are at school for their seventh year. Each finds that something about the school has changed for them, and these things help them to deal with the horrible aftermath of the Battle of Hogwarts.
1. Ginny

**Title: **Dreamers And The Dead  
**Author's Note: **This is a just a short little thing that I've been working on in between other fic. At first it was just about Ginny but eventually extended to Luna and Neville too. I wrote about them previously in my other fic, Taken (wherein Luna was kidnapped from the Hogwarts train by Death Eaters), and I want to return to those characters. In Taken the war had only just started. In this fic the war is over, and a lot of things have changed. (Also I know it's slightly unrealistic to say that the castle is still partly destroyed on their return to school, but let's just say that the damage was _huge_ (because it was), and no one felt up to cleaning it all up, though they still want to do it themselves.)

* * *

The Hogwarts Express puffed into the station, blowing steam over the platform and ruffling the robes of the students gathered there. Ginny stared at the train and sighed. This would be her last year at Hogwarts, and truthfully, she didn't know how she would feel when she saw the castle again. Would it look as it always had? Or would there be rubble still littering the grounds and castle, scorched stone walls looming everywhere, the bridge a mess of undergoing construction? Even with magic, cleaning up the horrifying mess of last autumn's battle would be a massive undertaking.

The platform had a hushed air about it – very different from the usual beginning-of-the-year hubbub. It unsettled her. All she wanted to do was get on the train and get going, but her mother was getting teary and fussing over the collar of her robes. She had to give Molly a proper goodbye. It wouldn't do to have her think that Ginny was eager to leave her behind, alone on the platform. Her brothers were all elsewhere – George at work in the shop, Charlie in Ukraine on a research grant, Bill at the bank, Ron... well, he was probably stressing over the beginning of his Auror training. He'd moved to London three weeks previously, having found an apartment for him and Hermione. Neither of them were returning to school, like Harry. It was going to be strange without them, but at least she had Luna and Neville.

"Now dear, you write to us as much as you want, okay? I'll be writing every week anyway. And don't be afraid to talk to someone else if you need to-"

"Mum, it's okay. I'll be fine."

"Are you sure, dear? Because Minerva did say that if anyone wanted to defer for a year they could..."

"I know. Really, I think... I think I'll be okay. I promise to write you guys, every week."

Molly smiled sadly, looking up at her youngest child. She enfolded her in a long, tight hug. The hug was reassuring, safe. Ginny stepped onto the train and waved as it pulled away. Grey smoke billowed around the front of the train and dissipated as they began to move, and soon the platform was gone.

On the train the time passed quickly. In the hours after it left the station Ginny talked to Luna about their coming exams, and wondered how much the student roll had shrunk after last year. With many dead and more gone, the classes would probably be a lot smaller. She had no idea which teachers were staying on, either. Despite Luna and Neville's presence on the train, she felt very alone, and she missed Harry desperately. Knowing she would have to spend months here at school while he trained with Ron at the Ministry was hard. They had spent much of the summer together, including a week-long period before school started when Ginny had spent every day and night at his new flat in London. At first they had simply shared many long, heavy kisses, reminiscent of those short months when they had been together during Ginny's fifth year. This was different, though. They knew there was no breaking up this time. The war was over; they were safe.

On the night before she'd left, Ginny, in a fit of resolute, daring boldness, had shed her clothes while Harry was in the shower and climbed in with him, drinking in the way his eyes roamed over her body, gasping as he'd pulled her close and kissed her hard.

She smiled, now, thinking about it. She glanced over at Luna, wondering if her friend had seen her blushing and biting her lip, but Luna's blonde head was, not surprisingly, buried in a book about fantastical animals. Lately she'd started reading about the more famous Muggle myths – the Loch Ness Monster, Bigfoot, the Yeti; all seemed likely, in this strange world full of werewolves and dragons and blast-ended skrewts.

She put her head against the window and dozed. It started to rain softly, and when they finally pulled into the station at Hogsmeade it was falling steadily, quickly drenching the students without umbrellas. Ginny and Luna sheltered under a tree while they waited for Neville, their new Head Boy, to get off the train. When he arrived they made a run for the carriages, which were idling twenty metres away.

The moment they stepped onto the road Ginny knew that something had changed. She walked carefully around the nearest carriage, dragging her fingers along the rain-wet sides as two strange creatures came into focus through the downpour.

"Luna," she said. "Come here."

Luna stepped lightly up beside her while Ginny stood still, not minding the hair sticking to her face or the water running down her neck.

"I can see… I can see them."

"Yes," Luna said softly, "the thestrals."

"I didn't really think about it. What the battle would mean once I got here – besides the wreckage, anyway. They're so…"

_Death-like._

The strange animals stood peacefully in the rain, steam rising from their nostrils as they snorted softly. Ginny saw for the first time what the creatures she once ridden to London with her friends looked like. She saw now the skeletal frame; the spines sticking from their backs, the wings nestled at their sides, the skinny legs part buried at the hooves in the mud and water on the ground. She remember gripping the mane of her steed as they flew over the Thames, water streaming from her eyes as she was buffeted by the wind. She shivered.

Luna took her hand, saying nothing.

Ginny said, "You've been able to see them for a long time, haven't you?"

"Yes, ever since I came to Hogwarts I've known what they were. My mother died in a potions accident when I was very young. It was horrible, but it was so long ago that I barely remember it now."

"Luna…" she whispered, her voice cracking as she tried not to burst into tears. "We saw so many people die. How are we supposed to handle it?"

She suddenly realised that Neville was standing next to them, staring quietly at the thestrals.

"Keep living, and try not to forget them. That's all we really can do," he said.

"Okay," she said, wiping her eyes. Her hand came away damp with tears.

The carriages In front of them started to pull away, so they climbed aboard the last carriage in line, finding Seamus Finnigan and Ernie Macmillan waiting for them. Ginny took a seat at the front, where she could see the thestrals best. She wasn't sure why she needed to be near them; after all, they were a reminder of the deaths of people close to her – Fred, Lavender, Colin, Tonks, Remus, and many more. She had seen nameless others fall to the killing curse, seen a death eater thrown from the Astronomy tower, seen Bellatrix Lestrange and Voldemort die, in the end.

But when she looked behind her, and saw Neville, Luna, Seamus and Ernie looking ahead, like she was, she realised why the creatures were important.

They had all been through the same thing.

They had all seen people die.

Through mutual suffering, she felt a connection to them, and the thestrals were a physical manifestation of that feeling. Their differences no longer seemed to matter, and any old conflicts had disappeared. They were bonded by death.

She remembered the first weeks after the battle, after the dead had been removed from the grounds and buried, and the memorial service had been held. The school year wasn't over, and there were many with exams to do, but nobody cared. The teachers wouldn't teach and the students, however preoccupied with their futures, couldn't focus, so school had ended in the middle of May. The Burrow was too quiet at first, with Fred gone. Charlie, Percy and Bill had to return to work and George barely spoke. Ron stayed for a few weeks but eventually he left, too. Arthur and Molly were in mourning, trying to get on as best as they could, so Ginny was left alone. She did her chores and her summer reading and stayed out of everyone's way. At night when she tried to sleep she remembered her mother crying over Fred's body, in a roomful of dead kids and Order members and Death Eaters, some with crying relatives and friends, and some without. Thinking about it hurt beyond belief.

Some nights she went downstairs and found Molly sitting at the table, staring at the clock. Arthur would apparate home from work and stand in the front yard for a few minutes, quiet and still, briefcase hanging from one hand. His hair receded faster than before. Molly's face gained a few lines.

The worst thing was that, in the immediate aftermath, nobody much felt like talking about it. School ended and all her friends went home – the ones that could – to mourn, and bury their sisters and brothers, and seclude themselves until they could face an ordinary day.

So when the thestrals pulled up at the front gate, and the students climbed from the carriages and entered the school grounds, Ginny marvelled at how far they'd all come. There were no tears at the sight of the still ruined Astronomy tower, or the undergoing construction on the new greenhouses, or the gaping hole in the seventh floor east corridor – they looked on dry-eyed at the scene of the end of the war, and Ginny smiled when Luna took her hand and led her as they all walked in together.

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end note: parts 2 and 3 will hopefully be up in the next couple weeks. thanks for reading! :)


	2. Neville

**Words:** 1,153  
**Author's Note:** part 2 is up quicker than I thought it would be! I guess that's what happens when you get home from work at 1pm and have nothing to do :)

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Even in the face of all this destruction, Neville could still smile. Everywhere he looked he saw remnants of the battle. Everything was a reminder in some way or another; he had struck Nagini with a sword right there by the forest, fought a Death Eater in that corridor, seen a student killed by _Avada Kedavra_ outside the Great Hall.

But even though there were blocks of rubble still piled below the Astronomy Tower and holes in most of the walls, the castle still looked like home to him. No amount of damage could change that.

In the Great Hall during dinner on their first day back, Neville looked around at the returning students. Next to him sat Ginny, laughing at something Seamus said. On his other side was Dennis Creevey, a sixth year, still short and skinny, watching the glowing ceiling as his sausage hung forgotten from his fork. He saw Ernie Macmillan and Hannah Abbott sitting at the Hufflepuff table, and Luna, quietly eating with the Ravenclaws. Hermione, too, reading a Transfiguration book as she ate her mashed potatoes. He hadn't known who to expect to see again; it was fantastic how many students had shown up.

There were no empty places at the teacher's table, however. McGonagall sat in the Headmaster's spot, with Slughorn on her right, and Hagrid eating chicken, head down, on her left. There were some new faces there, but not many.

He ate his dinner in silence, listening to the conversations going on around him. Seamus was talking about his mum again; she didn't want him to come back to school, but that was no surprise. Many students had faced the same problem. Despite the very public event of Voldemort's death, there were still some who believed he was alive. Neville didn't blame them. After surviving two wizarding wars begun by the same antagonist, people were very paranoid.

After dinner he walked back to the common room with the others, shuffling along behind the crowd with his hands in his pockets. On the higher levels the students dissipated, and he and Ginny walked in companionable quiet to the Fat Lady's portrait.

"_Jabberwocky_," he said. She yawned hugely, saying something unintelligible, and swung open.

Inside the common room the air was very warm. There was a fire going in the fireplace and a comforting rattle of rain on the windows. Some students were sitting in the plush armchairs, chatting or reading. Everything was as it should be. For a few moments he remembered his sixth year, doggedly battling Snape and the Carrows, day after day, as their spirits were slowly worn down. He still bore some scars on his arms and back, nearly-faded evidence of the punishments he had suffered. He was proud of them, now, knowing that what he'd done had made a difference.

On the train on the way to Hogsmeade, while he was sitting in a front carriage with the new Head Girl, a couple of second years had slid the door open and peered at him. One of them whispered, "Are you Neville Longbottom?" He'd nodded, and the kid's face lit up. He looked back at his friend. "That's the guy who killed Voldemort's snake!"

It was those little things – the admiring whispers, the smiles, knowing that people looked up to him for what he'd done – made all the cuts and bruises meaningful. He had contributed to the Dark Lord's demise, and people knew it. He was worth something.

The rain stopped suddenly, and a ray of yellow sunlight broke through the clouds. It was cold and getting dark outside, but suddenly Neville felt like taking a walk. He wanted to look up at the castle, go down to the lake and skip stones, visit the Whomping Willow. It was kind of amazing to him that he was still around to see these things. It was time to really appreciate them.

He went upstairs to his trunk and pulled out a coat, gloves, a scarf, and put them on. His attire was too warm for the common room, but once he stepped out into the corridors, where the cold permeated much more strongly, he was glad for it. Though it was not quite night time, torches still flickered in their brackets, causing the beaten-up suits of armour lining the walls to gleam.

Neville held onto his scarf when he stepped outside, stopping it from unwinding and flying away with the wind. He stood still and watched the sunset, grey and orange and pink and peeking between the tops of a group of evergreens, from the castle stairs. In this light his skin looked golden, and the castle's stone walls, still wet from the rain, shimmered with it.

He stepped out onto the grass and walked slowly towards the Quidditch pitch. New spectator seats had been erected in place of the ones the Death Eaters had burned down. The huge flags bearing the emblems of each Hogwarts house were bright with the sun on them. Neville thought that, for a Scottish evening, it was really beautiful. He had spent too long sitting at home watching the clock, counting the days, ignoring the world. Now he was really home, among people he loved. He loved his Grandma too, of course, but her health was failing and she spent most of her time being looked after by a woman from the local hospital. Their house in Croydon was quiet and boring. For the entirety of his time away from school, all he had wanted do was return.

He reached the pitch and turned around, looking back toward the castle. From there it didn't look so big, with half of it hidden in darkness. He felt good, standing out here among the pines, with the Quidditch pitch and the wind at his back, and all of the castle before him.

He folded his arms to shield against the cold and smiled, because it was then he realised something.

The war was over. The fighting was done. He was free, and he had come out the other side a taller, braver man, with fighting experience, friends he could count on, and a whole school who knew and respected his name. He said a silent prayer, there and then, for his dead friends. He promised to do them proud. Neville didn't want to be lost anymore, stumbling around like a kid who just learned to walk. He smiled, knowing he wasn't that person now.

Because Hogwarts no longer meant fear for him, it meant hope.

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**End Note:** I'd just like to thank Amanda ( .com) for helping me with this chapter. I got kind of stuck on Neville, so her prompt, to have Neville be this braver, fearless man, was so great. I know it's a bit short but these aren't meant to be novels! Also, thanks to everyone who's read this so far! I love you guys!


	3. Luna

**A/N: **Third and final part complete! Been working a lot lately, so I didn't have much time to finish this, but here it is now. I hope you enjoy it, despite the fact that I'm really not sure how to write Luna's whole airy-headedness thing. I just say her words in the voice of Evanna Lynch's Luna and see if it works… but you'll have to let me know for sure!

**Luna**

Ginny sat quietly on the grass while Luna braided her hair, and wove tiny blue forget-me-nots into the little plaits. It was very delicate work, and Ginny wouldn't sit still. She was trying to make a daisy chain, but the thin stems kept breaking and it was making her very frustrated. She bent her head, causing a braid to come undone.

"Please don't move," Luna said gently.

"Sorry. This bloody thing won't… stay… together," Ginny said, destroying the chain in an exaggerated manner, punctuating each pause with a dramatic rip. The broken daisies lay on the ground, crushed and bent. "It's stupid. Little kids do this."

"I'm having fun."

"Yeah well you're…"

"Yes?"

"Into that kinda thing, which is definitely okay, but I'm not. I want to go whack someone with a beater's bat."

"We can do that after this though, can't we? Your hair is nearly done. It looks very pretty."

"It's going to fall apart though. Those flowers won't stay put."

"Yes, they will. I'm going to charm them."

"Oh, okay."

She sat quietly once more, but within minutes she was ripping up grass and tying knots in the stems.

"Alright, I give up," Luna sighed. "You can go beat someone up now."

Ginny jumped up. Several little flowers fell to the ground. "Great! Are you gonna come watch me?"

"Of course."

They started walking to the Quidditch pitch. Luna watched the ends of the braids start to come apart, unravelling with every gust of wind. They left a trail of forget-me-nots behind them, nestled in the grass.

"Why do you still train, if there's no cup this year?" Luna said as they walked up a tall hill. They were coming into view of the pitch. The hoops rose over the trees, then the bright stands, and finally the team, walking into the changing rooms.

"Because we're still a team, regardless of what they say."

"None of the other teams practice."

"None of the other teams are Gryffindors," she pointed out, grinning.

They crested the hill and started down the other side, picking their way through a thicket of pine trees and brambles.

"That's true. I think it's great that you're all so dedicated."

Ginny smiled, brushing her hair, which was thin and easily moved by the strong wind, away from her face and into a long ponytail. "Thanks. We have to hold out for it, right? It's only been a month – maybe they'll change their minds."

Luna nodded. It was sad, and unfair on Ginny and the others, that the faculty had decided to put the cup aside this year in order to fix things, but Quidditch wasn't the thing that was broken, and taking it away was demoralising. She supposed she understood, in a way; people had enough to think about, and several of the players were gone, missing, or dead, but the remaining students still loved the game and the competition.

The team waited for them on the pitch, already dressed, brooms in hand. Ritchie Coote and Jimmy Peakes, the team's beaters, were in the air, whacking a bludger back and forth. They called out, "Ahoy, Capitane!" as the girls approached.

Luna watched them happily while Ginny changed, and watched them take off and start playing in earnest. Despite her place in Ravenclaw house Luna often found herself rooting for the Gryffindor team. They really were brilliant, despite the ups and downs of the last few years. They had more new members than old ones, many with little experience, and no games to train for, but they trained and improved anyway, and Luna could easily see that Ginny was very proud.

The team trained until twilight came, and Luna watched. She was the only one on the bleachers, as with every week. Once Ginny had changed they went to the Great Hall for dinner, where many spots on the long benches were empty and the air was hushed. The war had been over for months but things had not and probably never would return to exactly the way they were. So many students had pulled out of school, Harry and Ron among them, and more were getting their education somewhere else.

After Luna finished eating she left, walking through the halls alone while Ginny sat and talked with Neville. She passed a group of Hufflepuff third year boys, who watched her, whispering to each other, as she went by, and a painting of a merman, which brandished his trident and growled wetly. She was used to it by now. Many of the younger students stared at her in the corridors. None of them had been at the last battle of the war, but everyone had heard about it. They knew about her fighting with Bellatrix Lestrange, and they knew that she'd stunned Alecto Carrow, and they looked up to her for it. People still stared at her, but for a very different reason now than before.

The corridors grew steadily colder as she ascended the numerous staircases, until finally, at the seventh floor, the air became frigid, and she began to shiver. It was unseasonably cold this October. She entered the Ravenclaw tower common room with a sigh of relief, as the warmth of the fireplace washed over her, and sat on a couch beside Stewart Ackerly, a fifth year with whom she had been good friends since he started school at Hogwarts. Stewart was a slightly pudgy boy with dark, shaggy hair, eyebrows like caterpillars, and the thickest neck she had ever seen on someone other than a troll.

Stewart was reading The Daily Prophet, but he looked up when Luna sat down. He smiled at her and laid the paper on the seat between them. "Luna," he said, "I've been meaning to ask you something."

"What is it?"

"I want to know when you guys are starting up the DA again."

Her brow furrowed thoughtfully. Truthfully, she hadn't even thought of since the end of the war, and she said as much to Stewart then. "But why do we need the DA? The war is over; there's nothing threatening us now… besides exams."

She was surprised at how disappointed he looked.

"I know we don't need it as much as we did then, but we all really learned a lot last year, didn't we?" She nodded, thinking. Stewart was a good friend; honest, kind, intelligent – if he really wanted to learn more, and the others did too, what would be her reason to stop them? They had the time, the means and the energy, so where was the harm?

"I'll talk to the others about it," she said falteringly.

Stewart's thick eyebrows rose until they were completely covered by his dark fringe. "I'm sorry if I offend you, but why do you need to talk to your friends?"

"They're important to me. You know that."

"Well yeah, but if they say no… do you really need their approval?"

"What are you getting at here?"

"I'm just saying that you've proven yourself well enough to be able to run a defence class on your own."

Luna blushed and looked down at her knees, embarrassed.

"No," he said. "Listen. We all know what you did during the battle, okay? We know you stunned that Carrow bitch and fought Bellatrix Lestrange. We want to learn from you."

"Neville cut the head off that snake, and Ginny… wait, 'we'?"

"All of us. The whole Ravenclaw fifth, sixth and seventh year, and some of the fourth years too."

"Wow," was all she could say.

"And I'll bet there are Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs that want to learn from you too. They look up to you, and your magical skills."

"Stewart, are you sure?"

"Hundred percent."

Luna felt completely overwhelmed; her eyes were hot, beginning to brim with tears, and her mind was swimming with the feeling that people thought they needed _her_ to help them fight the dark arts. She didn't understand at all, and she was completely unsure of how to deal with it. For the last six years at this school, people had hidden her things, teased her and called her names, but mostly they had ignored her. That was worse than all the others things. With Ginny, Neville and the others… at least then she felt wanted, but Harry and Ron were gone now, and sixth year was putting such a strain on those left behind that none of them had much time for each other.

The younger students did whisper to each other about her battle with Bellatrix, and came up to her in the corridors, asking her what it was like, but she never knew that the seniors looked up to her too. She was amazed at how much had changed since the war.

Stewart had been quiet for a few minutes, but now he spoke again, softly, so he was almost whispering. "Maybe the war is over, and you think we don't need the DA anymore, but people are more willing now than they were then. We want to learn because we know what's out there. We know for certain. And we know you can help us."

"Okay," she said, voice breaking. "I'll do it." She grinned, watching tears sink into the fabric of her purple leggings.

"Thank you," he said. He handed her a tissue, looking away politely while she dabbed her eyes.

"You know," he said, staring at the fire, "the Room of Requirement is gone, but at least this year we won't have to hide. We could train in the Great Hall if we wanted to."

Luna laughed, suddenly filled with anticipation. The coming year looked much brighter. Already she was planning spells to teach them; shield spells, _reducto_ and_ levicorpus_ for the younger ones, the Patronus Charm for the ones who don't know it…

But she still needed Neville and Ginny, regardless of what Stewart Ackerly said. They were her best friends.

After all, she supposed; some things hadn't changed.


End file.
